MCI gives a makeover to 21-year-old MBBS syllabus

Medical curriculum in India is about to get a makeover by Medical Council of India (MCI).

The new syllabus of MBBS focuses on skill-based and hands-on training. Secretary of MCI, Dr. Reena Nayyar shares in her statement, “Information on new diseases has been included while irrelevant chapters not needed in general practice have been removed.”

The new syllabus for the bachelor’s degree programme in medicine will be published next month and come into effect from the 2019-20 academic session. It was last revised in 1997 which focused more on the theoretical knowledge of anatomy, pathology, physiology, etc. Students had to wait till third year to receive the first-hand clinical experience. The new curriculum is giving the opportunity to students of observing treatment at hospitals in their first year itself.

Country’s Medical Education Regulator, MCI has already started training teachers. “Over the last six months or so, we have trained close to 40,000 teachers identified by the respective medical education departments of medical colleges, and these teachers will further train their colleagues on how to handle the new course material,” stated Nayyar.